Did you know slips, trips, and falls are second only to automobile accidents in causing personal injury? On stairways alone, falls result in over 2 million disabling injuries annually. There are thousands of minor injuries caused by slips, trips, and falls each year. These facts are no less true in Oklahoma cities and towns. Most alarming is the fact that more than 1000 deaths are recorded each year due to falls on the job. Today’s discussion will cover what we can do to prevent slips, trips, and falls in the workplace and at home.

What can be said about protecting your eyes? It is pretty basic: “You would be very foolish indeed if you did not protect your eyes at all times while on the job.”  Your eyes, one of the most important organs on your body, yet we take them for granted and fail to protect them perhaps more than any other body part. Thousands of eye injuries occur annually to municipal workers. 

There is absolutely no reason for anybody to get hurt, disabled, or killed while using a ladder or scaffolding. Yet it happens every day. Somebody steps on the safety label that says, “This is not a step!” and ends up with a broken leg. Another worker puts a rock under one of the legs because the ladder is just not quite stable enough. On the way to the hospital grimacing in pain with a broken arm they state “maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.” On another job, a guy reaches out just a bit to far and … well… he’s no longer with us. Virtually every single ladder or scaffolding accident could and should have been prevented. It only takes a little bit of common sense, SAFETY SENSE, to prevent an accident from occurring. Stick to the following simple rules to ensure that you or a co-worker is never injured while using a ladder or scaffolding.

Each year serious injuries and deaths occur in the workplace as a result of unsafe jack, stands, lifts, and hoist use. Although safety responsibility for these devices must be shared between employer and employee, the ultimate responsibility for safety lies with the individual worker. Even where there is close supervision, the worker makes the final decision on how to do the job.